If you love something, sometimes you have to let it go. Company founders that began companies from scratch are known to have a deep affinity for their businesses but aren't always able to stick around as long as they would like.

As startups get bigger, they take on more investors. Those investors often end up on the board of directors of the company, which makes decisions about the hiring and firing of senior management. Here are eight instances in which the people who founded their companies ended up being removed and sometimes coming back.

Dov Charney — American Apparel

Charney was sent packing last week by the board of American Apparel, which has claimed he misused company funds and alleged misconduct. He is reportedly preparing to fight to get his position back by rallying shareholders behind him to remove the board members that fired him.

Steve Jobs — Apple

In 1985, Apple's fortunes had taken a turn. Steve Jobs, then only 30, had already created a company worth more than a billion dollars. However, a power struggle with John Sculley, the CEO he recruited, led to Apple's board of directors exiling Jobs from the company.

After his departure, Jobs founded Pixar Animation Studios and another computer start-up, NeXT. Jobs would return in 1996 when Apple acquired NeXT, becoming CEO the next year and helping the company to launch products such as the iPod and iPhone and achieve spectacular profitability. Jobs resigned in August of 2011, as his health declined. He passed away in October of that year.

Jack Dorsey — Twitter

Dorsey, along with Ev Williams, Biz Stone and Noah Glass, co-founded Twitter in 2006 and worked as CEO until 2008. Williams took the chief executive title, while Dorsey moved to occupy the chairman of the board position, a transition that has been attributed to Dorsey's focus on product over revenue.

George Zimmer — Men's Wearhouse

In this Thursday, May 6, 1999 file photo, George Zimmer, second from left, gestures to Andy Dolich prior to a meeting, in Oakland, Calif. On Tuesday, June 25, 2013, Men's Wearhouse Inc., offered some details on why it parted ways with founder Zimmer, saying that Zimmer seemed to have difficulty "accepting the fact that Men's Wearhouse is a public company with an independent board of directors and that he has not been the chief executive officer for two years."

Image: Ben Margot/Associated Press

Zimmer might be best known for his commercials and tagline — You're going to like the way you look. I guarantee it. Zimmer founded the company in 1973 and served as CEO until stepping down from the position in 2011. He maintained the executive chairman on the company's board until 2013, when a dispute with other board members over business strategy ended up with his forced resignation.

Daniel Zappin — Maker Studios

Danny Zappin, CEO and co-founder of Maker Studios, speaks during the Digital Life Design conference on January 24, 2012 in Munich, Germany.

Image: Johannes Simon/Getty Images

Zappin co-founded Maker Studios, one of the most successful YouTube-centric video production companies, in 2009 and served as the company's CEO. Zappin was replaced in May 2013, a move that prompted a lawsuit alleging that the board took steps to dilute Zappin's holdings and remove him as CEO.

David Neeleman — Jet Blue

JetBlue Airways founder and former chief executive David Neeleman addresses his company's recent problems during an interview at the company headquarters in Queens, New York, Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2007.

Passengers stranded for hours on delayed flights led to Neeleman's exit as CEO of the airline he founded in 1998. After being removed from the lead management job in 2007, he was replaced as chairman in 2008.

Jerry Yang — Yahoo

Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang poses for a photo in front of the Yahoo booth at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in this Jan. 7, 2008 file photo.

Image: Paul Sakuma/Associated Press

In 1994, Yan and David Filo co-founded the website that would become Yahoo! Yang had a turbulent reign as CEO for less than two years starting in June 2007, including a rejected takeover offer from Microsoft. Major shareholders including Carl Icahn, a noted activist investor, was a vocal critic of Yang.

Yang stepped down as CEO in 2009 and later from the Yahoo's board in 2012.

Andrew Mason — Groupon

Andrew Mason of Groupon, a online startup for bargain hunters looking for group discounted sales stands in the grand staircase of the Art Institute of Chicago, one of his company's clients, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2009 in Chicago.

Image: M. Spencer/Associated Press

Mason founded Groupon in 2008 and enjoyed meteoric success. As competitors began to eat away at the company's core business, disappointing earnings ended up dooming Mason, who was replaced as the company's CEO. He wrote in a letter to Groupon employees: "From controversial metrics in our S1 to our material weakness to two quarters of missing our own expectations and a stock price that’s hovering around one quarter of our listing price, the events of the last year and a half speak for themselves. As CEO, I am accountable."

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